Days of Our Lives' John de Lancie Remembers the Late Arleen Sorkin
If only we had a spare robot that could radiate the vivacity and good humor that Arleen Sorkin did. Alas, we lost the one-of-a-kind actress, who played Calliope (and her robot counterpart) on Days of Our Lives on August 18. Now, her on-screen sweetheart, John de Lancie — Salem’s wacky Eugene — is sharing his memories of his leading lady with TVLine.
“I never had more fun acting than with Arleen on Days of Our Lives,” he tells our sister site. “Over the last 40 years, I’ve been reminded nearly every week by someone coming up to me and telling me how much they enjoyed… Calliope and Eugene. We were a team, and we laughed a lot. I will miss her always.”
Looking back, de Lancie can’t believe that he and Sorkin were allowed to get so silly on screen with their characters’ “totally insane” high jinks. “[Then-exec producer] Al Rabin [was a] class clown and saw in me a kindred spirit when I first came to work at Days [in 1982],” says the actor. “They wanted a psychopath but, after looking at the show, I came to the conclusion that they needed a comedian. My one-week gig turned into a few months, and then Arleen came along. [It was] a match made in heaven.
“For three years our only note from Al,” he adds, “was ‘faster and funnier.’”
Mind you, that wasn’t the only note, period. During a 1984 storyline in which a “plane took about two weeks to fall out of the sky,” de Lancie, Sorkin and half the cast “was acting at a level of soap opera hysteria rarely seen in the real world,” he says. “On one of those days, I looked at Arleen — with a big smile on my face — and yelled, ‘We’re crashing, we’re crashing. Put your head between your legs!’ Arleen gave me a wink — dropped out of frame — I threw my head back in the chair and said, ‘Between your own legs, Calliope!’
“That got us sent up to the principal — [then-NBC boss] Brandon Tarticoff,” he continues. Tartikoff “told us, ‘You guys are very funny, but you’re killing me. de Lancie, when you first came on the show, we had one blue-haired censor who showed up once a week. Now, with Arleen, we have two censors on all your scenes, and you’re still getting stuff out there. You’re not doing daytime, you’re not doing prime time, you’re doing a 2:30-in-the-morning blue time. It’s got to stop!’”
Scroll through the photo gallery below to flash back to Days of Our Lives’ yesteryears.
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